1. Field
An aspect of the invention relates to a server apparatus, a terminal apparatus, and a communication control method, for utilizing an application function on the server apparatus through use of a plurality of input/output devices.
2. Description of Related Art
For the purpose of improving usability, there is known a computing system in which a terminal with a minimum input/output interface is performed at user's side and complicated calculations are done via by a server on a network at a remote location. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,784,855 discloses a computing system in which a main unit (a personal computer, a server, and the like) runs an application to create screen image to be transmitted and shown on a display terminal at user's side through the network.
In the computing system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,784,855, the display terminal with a touch panel at a user's side connects directly to the server through the network, to thus establish communication. When input/output devices other than the display terminal, such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a speaker, use the application program and the processing power of the server, all these devices have to establish communication with the server via the display terminal. Therefore, when such a computing system is implemented, the display terminal has to maintain multiple interfaces to connect with various input/output devices, which causes complication of the configuration of the terminal.
In contrast, there has also been proposed a computing system in which input/output devices, such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a speaker, as well as a display terminal are connected directly to a server, to establish communication (see; for instance, JP-A-2007-4656).
In such a computing system in which a plurality of input/output devices are independently connected to the server, to establish communication, when a plurality of users use one server, input/output devices need to be grouped and managed on a per-user basis. In order to implement such grouping and management, JP-A-2007-4656 discloses a technique for grouping input/output devices which has a capability to access the network.
According to the technique described in JP-A-2007-4656, the display terminal first attempts to establish connection with a server. When the server authenticates the display terminal as a device to be trusted, the input device, such as a mouse and a keyboard, next attempts to establish a connection. When such an attempt to establish a connection is performed by the input device, the server displays, on the already-connected display terminal, a screen for prompting interactive operation with the input device that is attempting to make a connection. When the user performs an operation for the input device in response to the screen, the server determines whether or not input information coincides with an expected response. When a match exists, the input device is taken as equipment belonging to a same group of the user who owns the display terminal, to thus performing grouping. Thus, the input/output devices are grouped on a per-user basis.
However, in a case where connections are necessary to a plurality of servers in order to utilize a plurality of applications, the grouping procedures which are caused every time devices try to establish connections with a server degrade the usability.